Makeup Review: Betsey Johnson's NEW Cosmetics Line!
- Rachel Rosana
- Feb 15, 2019
- 11 min read
*This blog is NOT sponsored or a PAID review. This blog post is my own opinions and experience with the items I have purchased ONLY. *
Betsey recently revealed that she was creating a cosmetic line. Being a HUGE Betsey Johnson bag collector I knew that I had to get my hands on this ASAP! I love the unique creativity of her bags how she is able to think OUTSIDE the box rather than playing it safe. The cosmetic line is animal cruelty free (she was asked this question on her Betsey Johnson Instagram)
*Side note: The photo to the right, is a photo of my dog, Gracie. I couldn't resist having her do a mini photoshoot with the Betsey items! And yes, she needs a haircut (and bath).
*KEEP IN MIND*
You can ONLY purchase this cosmetic line exclusively on Fragrancenet.com
USE THIS LINK: HERE to purchase anything or all of the makeup line. There are some issues lately with the search tab on the Fragrance website. People cannot seem to find the makeup if you search for it. Which was my problem and I only was able to buy 2 items from this line. I hope they fix this issue!!
For those that are unfamiliar, Betsey is known for her clothes and handbags. She has a huge mark in the fashion world. Ever since I was younger I would pass her stores on the Lower East Side of New York City, and see all the gorgeous outfits and accessories she carried. I had always wished I could own at least ONE item of hers. I have been lucky enough to have a collection of Betsey Johnson book bags, purses, clutches and sunglasses. She has such a unique and creative mind and designs and themes of her bags show it. Whenever I wear her bags I always get stopped for its beauty and creativity. She puts a lot of thought into the bags, all the way to the zippers. As you can see in the photos below.
Here are some of her bags:
She has a lot more bags than what is shown here. Some of the purses below are currently on sale now, while some are no longer being sold.
"So Succulent Crossbody Multi" Bag - a flower pot purse!!
Pumpkin Spice Frozen Latte purse (no longer sold) & "Gotta Getta Gumball" Handbag (photos above)
"Kitsch A Toast To You Crossbody Pink" - a PopTart purse w/ a PopTart coin purse!
Packaging of the NEW Cosmetic Line:
The packaging is a shiny cardboard box, and the palette itself is a standard cardboard palette. It is lightweight - not heavy at all. (not meant negatively)
The box packaging design is VERY Betsey. It has her signature black and white polka dots on the box itself and the eyeshadow palette, along with quotes and common sayings, and very comic book like look to it. These types of patterns and sayings are common to her brand and are often found her blankets, towels, bags, etc. Also, you cannot forget her signature bright pink BETSEY JOHNSON banner. Overall, I love this look of the palette and packaging. I opened it and knew this wasn't just a line Betsey threw her name onto and hoping it does well. There was thought to every detail of this line and I notice it.
[I wanted to mention a few things -- I only purchased the eyeshadow and brushes set. I could not spend too much money considering it comes from my own pocket. ALSO, I noticed on the website they added more items AFTER I purchased these two items. (odd) Also as mentioned earlier, the search bar on the website, Fragrancenet.com is a mess. You cannot search for Betsey's makeup only her perfume which makes purchasing frustrating and confusing.]
Close up:
The brushes were in a clear individual plastic bags. (which is standard for new products - sanitary) Inside of the cosmetic bag contained the brushes and beauty sponge. The palette came in a clear protective bag, (again, standard packaging) but otherwise that was all for items I purchased in her line. I may purchase more in the future.
The Collection:
Highlighter Powder with Brush - "Sparkle Hard" ($12/USD)
Mascara & Lash Fibers - "Lush Lush" ($12/USD)
Luminous Highlight Stick Kit - "Sparkle Plenty" ($16/USD)
Fabulous Lash Kit - "Falsies" ($12/USD)
Double Ended Lip Gloss 3x - "Sparkle On Down" ($16/USD)
Long Lasting Matte Liquid Lip Color Nude Color Kit 3x - "Lip Love"
Shades: Classic Color Kit ($18/USD) and Nude Color Kit ($18/USD)
Close ups:
I am in love with this packaging! It is fun, creative and eye catching.
Items I purchased:
BLEND IT BABE 6 pc Brush set, Includes 5 brushes and beauty blender sponge and cosmetic bag - ($20/USD)
BLEND IT BABE Eyeshadow Palette, 24 shades - ($30/USD)
The Brushes & Bag Set:
The 6 piece brushes set have a nice handle to them. They are a soft black rubber feel to them. I suppose so it is easy to grip while using. The brushes itself are soft, but they don't feel as soft as a comment on Fragrance.net claimed it to be.
They are synthetic brushes. The come in a variety of sizes, powder, eyeshadow, eyeliner, eyeshadow crease brushes etc. A good variety, but I am worried once I wash them if they may fall apart. They are similar to the Wet N Wild brushes I own..I am unsure if that is a good thing or bad thing. Some of my Wet N Wild brushes looses its form after wash and use.
The beauty blender is a nice size, similar to others on the market. The makeup bag is a nice shiny pink metallic bag, good size for placing multiple brushes and blenders in it. It is a bag you can definitely throw into a purse or bag on the go. It is a good size for just a few items. Probably my favorite item out of the collection. The price range for this line is well priced, but I am concerned at how cheap the brush set was. I hope they last a while. I wish I would have seen the highlighter and lip gloss set, I don't know why I did not see them. But maybe in the future I will buy those items.
The Eyeshadows Palette:
I took two photos to show how they look with flash and without. I was rather surprised at how SMALL the eyeshadow pans were. That surprised the heck out of me. I would have rather paid $30.00/USD for the eyeshadow for bigger BETTER quality pans if that meant it only contained 6 shades not 24 shades. I was rather disappointed by that. When I think of Betsey Johnson I think BIGGER AND BETTER. But clearly, maybe she did not want to go that route. She kept it VERY safe with these colors. I wanted brighter pinks, red, more greens, more blues...but instead I got a BLAH palette.
Inside of palette:
Before I get into the description details of EACH of the shades, the size of the pan I wanted to get a photo of. I compared each pan to the size of a penny, because to me that fit PERFECTLY in each of the pans. I had thought at first a nickel would do, but it was a tad too big for the pan.
As you can tell in the photo below, the penny fits like a glove in the eyeshadow pan. So be warned -- that is how small these eyeshadows are. I found Betsey's photos on Instagram made them look larger than they really are.
This was a BIG disappointment to me because even swatching it was tough to get my fingers in the pan and using a brush you may run out of the shade rather quickly. There is barely anything there in the pan. It is interesting because many companies will sell single eyeshadow shades, and those pans are bigger than a quarter!
I just wish for bigger eyeshadow pans from Betsey with less colors... I wonder if the quality would be better!
Detailed Descriptions of the 24 Shades:
If I am wrong on which is matte and/or metallic, it is because looking at what appears to be matte shades have glitter specks in them. Also, once applied it looks more matte to me than metallic and vice versa... if that makes sense. (more in my "Final Thoughts" section of this blog post - on the bottom of this page -)
I tried to be as detailed as possible with how they looked in the pan and once used.
-The eyeshadows on the TOP row only-
Lulu - Light Pale Matte Shade || Good for an eyeshadow base.
Layla - Light Silver and Pale Gold Glitter Metallic Shade.
Bubbly - Light Gold Metallic Shade || Looks like champagne color which I assume is why it is called Bubbly.
Tutu - Pale Pink Matte Shade || Good for an eyeshadow base.
Dress Up - Pinkish Silver Metallic Shade.
Babe - Pale Pink Matte Shade.
Ella - Rose Pink with Silver undertones Metallic Shade. || If you compare ELLA with DRESS UP, they are different. ELLA would be the darker pink metallic shade of the two.
Cartwheel - Rose Pink Matte Shade. || Similar to ELLA, but CARTWHEEL is the Matte version of it. It does NOT look like that if you are looking at the eyeshadow palette. If you are looking at it without touching it, it looks like a red shade, it is not. Once on it is rather similar once you work with the color (CARTWHEEL).
-The eyeshadows in the MIDDLE row only-
Penny - Pinkish Bronze Metallic Shade || Again, it could be compared to the pink family shades names of ELLA AND CARTWHEEL, but this would be the slightly darker metallic shade to CARTWHEEL. I wish she would of expanded on this type of color here, these pink shades could of been a neon color shade or something more exciting instead.
Goldie - Bronze Gold Metallic Shade || Maybe my favorite out of the palette. The way it swatched it did not need to be swatched more than once. It was nice buttery texture and it went on smooth. There was fall out with this color and some of the other metallics, but that is normal to that type of shades. Really nice pigment!
Musk - Tan Matte Shade || Good for an eyeshadow base.
Cork - Compared to MUSK, this is a Medium Tan Matte Shade || Good for eyelid crease.
Rock On - Bronze with a purple undertone reflective Metallic Shade || It is hard to say what this is, the light can play tricks on your mind as to how purple or how bronze this shade is. It is a nice color, but you can be the judge as to which color this shade really is.
Frisky - Deep Brown Matte Shade || Good for smokey eye looks, but may need to use this color a few times to get that nice deep brown shade for a smokey eye look.
Petticoat - Purple (very glittery) Metallic Shade || Nice color, but interesting shade of purple. I wouldn't say it is a grape color purple, because that would be too vibrant. It is maybe more of grayish undertone purple. Also when I took this off a lot of glitter was left on my arm, similar to the issues of the shade FLIRT.
Flirt - Looks like a Purple with minimal glitter flakes but applies as a Matte Shade with Pinkish Purple Matte Shade. || It is odd because once I took this shade off my skin there was a lot of glitter residue left on my arm, you would of thought a bottle of glitter was poured on my arm (similar to PETTICOAT). I did not understand that.
-The eyeshadows in the BOTTOM row only-
Malibu - Pale Tan Metallic Shade || You cannot see it as well on my skin tone on no flash photograph because it similar to my skin tone of my arm.
Cookie - Dark Bronze Metallic Shade || Good for smokey eye looks
Vintage - Black with gold reflective Metallic Shade || One of my Favorites. I have a feeling the more you use this metallic shade you will get a nice dark edgy look when you apply it with a wet brush or using your finger on the eyelid. I like dark metallic shades like this and look forward to using this shade more.
Fierce - Look Hunter Green Metallic Shade || I wasn't impressed by this metallic shade. I had to swatch it a 3 times to get that nice green color it showed me in the palette. I wanted it to be more of a richer green. Overall, this shade was a miss for me.
Twinkie - Navy Blue Metallic Shade || One of my favorites! It went on nicely. I had to swatch it twice to get that nice navy blue color I like...you may not need to do that, if you are okay with a lighter navy blue. Overall, it wasn't as buttery as the GOLDIE metallic shade, but it was nice edition to palette. This color was actually what I gravitated towards first when I opened the palette.
Smoke - Blueish Gray Matte Shade || In the pan it looks like a deep gray. It is not. Once used, you can see it is a darker blue with gray. I was kind of disappointed by this shade. If you have a dark gray metallic shade like NEW YORK and a semi-black shade, PUNK it would be nice to have just a regular matte gray...with NO glitter.
New York - Dark Gray Metallic Shade || This shade reminded of.. if you use a pencil while drawing a photo and sometimes the led gets on your fingers, hands from using the pencil so much...that is what shade looks like. (I don't recommend doing that, if you have never done it. It makes a mess) Overall, it is a nice dark grey metallic shade and I definitely see myself using this shade!
Punk - Black Matte Shade || Extremely disappointed by this color. I had to swatch this color 4 times to get the black I thought it was. When you make a black shade, make it BLACK. Do not make it a semi black or pale gray. Then it is not black, you have made gray shade...which should not be called PUNK. When you look at it in the palette it is very misleading. The pigment is barely there, I found that you had to constantly use this PUNK shade if you wanted a rich black color. HOWEVER, if you like blacks that are rarely there and not as pigmented then this color is it without the extra work.
The swatches I did of some of the shades:
They aren't perfect swatches, but you get the point as to how they look. Please keep in mind swatches can sometimes be misleading to some users. They are often different from how they are on the arm compared to eyelid. I just want to be clear and straightforward with my review. Also these did NOT leave any staining - everyone's skin reacts differently to different formulas/shades -
Final Thoughts:
Well, I wanted to LOVE this palette. I did not. There were a few shades I really loved while others flopped. I felt the metallics were better made than the mattes. Some shades were either chalky and lacked pigment, while I found some metallics crumbled. When I think of Betsey Johnson, I think BRIGHT COLORS not a safe bland palette. I suppose maybe she didn't want to go crazy in a world she may not be too familiar with ...yet (the makeup world).
This makeup world can be extremely competitive and judgmental to the hard, creative and unique trendsetters. I am finding that it is a lose-lose situation for many beauty brands (Indie or big named brands/influencers) But from someone who is NOT a makeup professional, but a makeup lover and collector -- I appreciate and love the hard work that was put into this collection. The packaging was spot on Betsey perfect!
However, I cannot lie and say I recommend the eyeshadow and brush set to my readers. I love and adore Betsey's fashion items and will always recommend her others on how creative and well made the purses are... but this eyeshadow palette was a complete flop. Way toooo small of pans, the shade names were cute, but I wanted more Betsey colors! I would of gladly have paid $45/USD for 6 shades and bigger eyeshadow pans if that meant BETTER QUALITY and unique colors. Also, I found the shades came off so easily, if a raindrop hit me in the face ...the shades I can only imagine what would happen... it would be a disappearing act.. there one minute and gone the next! I hate to say it but at first the eyeshadow palette reminded me of kids makeup, the ones you find at Clares. But as I used it more, it reminded me of Sephora palettes which are often a hit or miss.
As for the brushes.. they are a nice collectors item to have if that is something you do. They have Betsey Johnsons name on them and are cute so I understand the appeal. But thats all they are, cute. I would save your money and wait to see how or if her cosmetic company can grow from this collection. I was really rooting for these two items to amazing...
With that being said -- Everyone deserves a second chance! I hope her next collection is BIGGER and BETTER! Only LOVE for you Betsey.. I look forward to see what else you create in the makeup world!
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